Home

Some of My Favorite Works

Buried for 50 years in a Butternut, white walnut, tree, I just had to help this old spirit out. He sat around in a discarded slab of wood in my shop for years until one day he spoke to me the way spirits speak to artists. I carefully cut off the excess wood holding him in place. Once out, I helped... More detail

While the box elder tree can grow to a large size, it typically has no real market value. What people fail to see is a beautiful, pale wood with streaks of pink running through the grain, especially in burls. This was a rather large burl on an old tree. More detail

Gertis was the sort of man that will not reappear in our lifetime. Raised by Indians, devoid of formal schooling, and free of modern life, Gertis was a skilled blacksmith, logger, tinkerer, and story teller. At home in the woods, he knew the Indian names of virtually all the trees and flowers.... More detail

To be a successful wood carver, one must believe that the art lies within the wood, and all that is necessary is to remove the excess wood. It's after dust and shavings clear that the art emerges.

Wood art is meant to be touched; it takes a delicate touch to really see the image. Carving the wood follows the same magic--it is as much a matter of my sense of touch as it is using my eyes. The hands are better than the eyes to know where to cut.

Buy an original, hand-carved work of art.

People

People I Have Known

Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, also know as Minnie Pearl, was from my hometown of Centerville, TN. Minnie's colorful character was derived from the personalities of some of our "country people." 'Plelia's character was equally interesting, but she was a very well-educated and cultured person who left an amazing mark on comedy, country music, the Grand Ole Opry, and the hometown people who knew her well.

Additional Info

WoodCatalpha

Finishwax

DimensionsApproximately 16" tall

StatusOn display at the Hickman County Chamber of Commerce, Centerviille, TN

Gertis was the sort of man that will not reappear in our lifetime. Raised by Indians, devoid of formal schooling, and free of modern life, Gertis was a skilled blacksmith, logger, tinkerer, and story teller. At home in the woods, he knew the Indian names of virtually all the trees and flowers. With a hot fire in his forge, he could make most tools--and did. With a newspaper reporter, he could spin yarns faster in the colorful, descriptive manner of a real story teller with lots of practice. Pauses to roll a cigarette punctuated his story. He delighted in getting the best of a gullible believer. Alida tended Gertis as a faithful wife in the tradition of the 19th century. Never having electricity in the house with only kerosene lamps to read by, she read the bible to Gertis each evening to no avail. He didn't believe in it. She earned a little spending money cleaning houses in the community.

Charlie Garner was a friend of many, and many knew him through the Grand Ole Opry, mission work, family, and hosting of the Grinders Switch Radio Hour every Saturday morning in Centerville, TN, at the Chamber of Commerce office.

Buried for 50 years in a Butternut, white walnut, tree, I just had to help this old spirit out. He sat around in a discarded slab of wood in my shop for years until one day he spoke to me the way spirits speak to artists. I carefully cut off the excess wood holding him in place. Once out, I helped him gain his color back with some oil and wax.

Taken from a children's book about a little white girl and a black girl that became friends meeting on a neutral fence between the two families, the image was striking. It was a challenge for me to carve the braided hair.

Inspired by a photograph of song writer Ed Bruce, this is one of the few carvings I have painted. (I painted it to cover some defects in the wood that I could not fix.) The guitar strings are elastic strings.

I don't know much about Charlie. That's the name my Dad gave him while I was working on extracting him from a big piece of walnut. This man definitely had personality; Charlie fits as a name. He showed up in a magazine sitting on a log smoking what appears to be a very rank cigar. I moved him to a bench against a wall, although some say it looks like he is sitting on an outdoor toilet. Perhaps Charlie knows. Nevertheless, he has real character.

While the box elder tree can grow to a large size, it typically has no real market value. What people fail to see is a beautiful, pale wood with streaks of pink running through the grain, especially in burls. This was a rather large burl on an old tree.

A scrub cherry tree contained a burl about 15' up the trunk. Crafted with a rotary chain saw-type carver, the bowl is almost round like the burl. It's walls are as thin as I dared to sweep away the wood, yet the crazy features of the twisted grain and intermixed bark show through the polished finish.

A defect on a Maple tree held the promise of something special. The swelling started from some injury or insect bite I suppose. As the tree built layer after layer of protective tissue, the grain took on the definition of the burl. Unlike a bowl created on a lathe, this bowl follows the natural boundaries of the burl. It is irregular. I used a small rotary cutter with chain saw teeth to hollow the burl to a thin shell. I left piece of the bark around the edge making a ragged top.

In these hills of Tennessee deer are plentiful, but usually seen in open areas at dusk or dawn. Skilled hunters and wildlife watchers also see the deer in their habitat. Here, the carving shows a buck deer with antlers skillfully hiding behind leaves.

Trees dominate the landscape here in this part of Tennessee--all kinds of trees. With so many leaves growing and blowing in the wind, they seem to have personalities. Here those imaginary personalities are captured in wood.